Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-11-10
Monaghan Tartars.

A strangely-attired Belgian priest
arrived on the steamer from China,
says the San Francisco L-dnincr. He
is Rev. Father "A. Gunda, president of
the Roman Catholic missions in Mon
golia, where he has been arduously
laboring for ten years past. He is
a man of about 40 years of age, with a
full flowing beard and rich silken gown
of an oriental design. Other marks
of dress betoken him resident of
land most remote from ours. A re-
porter sought an interview with him.
Said he:
"My life work has been with the
Tartars who inhabit Mongolia, and
the scenes of my work have been close
by the great wall of China The COM
mercial emporium of Mongolia is Kali
gan, town of 400, coo inhabitants.
1t is here that the Russians come to
buy chamois skins and tea, which the
Chinese residents Of Mongolia raise in
immense quantities. The Mongolians
themselves despise tilling the ground,
and, as the land belongs to the differ
ent tribes, their chiefs have been sell
ing it off to the Chinese.
'The Mongolians are descendants of
the old Tartars, and raise tens of thou
sands of cattle and horses. Beyond
this they do nothing except hunt.
They are q wild, ungoyernable race,
living in tents. They are magnificent
horsemen, something like your wild
Indians. Their religion is Tartaric
Buddhism. One of their sacred tenn
pies is at Kunbun. In Thibet the
great temple of u Lassa is constructed
after the manner of an Indian Buddhist
temple Only one or two Europeans
have ever been admitted within its
sacred precincts. They think the
mere admission of a foreigner within
its portals would forever detile it.
THE Russians that tried to invade
this country three years ago have re-
linqushed their efforts. They got
two consulates established on the Mon
golan coast, and they have had to
give away. They now have open
ports rs far as Picking, but no further.
All the talk you hear Of invasions from
the Russians now goes for nothing.
Mongolia is under the domain of
China.
The country is largely a desert,
although with water il is exceedingly
productive. There are very rich mines
of copper and silver as we'll as mag
nifcent beds of coal. Mongolia is
colder than China, and consequently
the inhabitants, although dressing
somewhat like the Chinese, put on
more clothes. They are unlike the
Chinese entirely otherwise, being
more aggressive and warlike. They
are not tractable race by any
means.
Hunting the chamois is great sport
with the MongolanS They are
skilled horsemen and dead shots with
their weapons, variety of which they
use They are also skillful with the
dart.
"In the ten years that have been
| there we have succeeded in converting
| about $4,000 of these wild Tartars.
Though wild they are open to civiliz-
ing and humanizing influences; but
there are so many of them, and their
country is so large, that it takes a
long while to make much effect upon
| them as mass.
The reverend gentlemen is going
home to Belgium. He is accompanied
by a wealthy resident of Brussels,
Viscount de Benghem. who, from
March to July last, has been making
n tour of certain parts of Mongolia
and studying up the habits of the ma
1 TWAS